Chapter 5: Terms and Conditions
The apartment was moderate; two bedrooms – one for each man respectably which made Rafael's expression contort into one of relief considering that if he had to share with Sonny, it would be taxing on his mentality.
"So…now what?" He questioned after a moment of silence.
"Well Barba it's around 5:00 and the guys aren't going to come back till tomorrow morning so I'd say do what you normally do when you get home."
"That's impossible, I'm usually not home till-I mean, you're right!" The attorney moving towards the kitchen to explore as he hoped it would make the situation less awkward between them. He felt a pair of eyes gazing to his back after his statement.
A laugh came soon after making the elder man close cabinet he had been inspecting the dining ware absentmindedly in an effort to avoid eye contact, "Why is it I don't picture you being a night owl unless it's for work?"
"What does that mean? I have a social life, thank you very much."
"You mean at the cop bar across the street from the court house? If that's your social life, Barba then we all have a pretty lame social life."
A brown pair of eyes narrowing over his shoulder before they went back to looking to the next cabinet when he found some boxes of Captain Crunch and Frosted Flakes, perhaps John had gone shopping for the items and having his fun.
"I'll have you know that I have plenty of opportunities to have a nice evening out."
"Well I mean…you seem pretty on the straight and narrow, Counselor. I wouldn't put it past you to be chilling past 8 or something," Sonny mused as he lifted the sunglasses to pocket them to have a better look at the man.
The Latino would only raise an eyebrow in return then scoff, going back to the cabinets and refrigerator inspection, "You make it seem like I'm so boring as to be on the 'straight' and 'narrow.' "
Especially straight his mind finished supplying for him.
Sonny shook his head, holding up his hands mildly, "Nothing wrong with it! I mean if you want to head out, I'd only have to follow you."
"Are you a bodyguard or stalker, Carisi?" An amused smirk now on his face as he found a bottle of water, supplied with some other small items for food in the fridge, and popped it open to take a sip of it as he gazed back.
"It's hard to distinguish the difference after a while so I'll leave that for you to decide," He commented with a grin tossed to the man, a hint of pink coloring his pale cheeks which made him clear his throat and turn to exit towards the bedrooms instead of diving further into that comment.
Rafael leaned against the counter to gaze at the lingering figure appreciatively as he disappeared, sipping idly at the water for an excuse to not respond. The man looked amazing in a dark suit that varied to his normal appearance with soft greys.
What was wrong with him? He could barely respond to such a comment with his usual witty banter and it was throwing him off his game.
He gazed to the water bottle for a moment as he recollected himself: he had to focus; the sake of this entire operation was to save those boys. If he was to get distracted at the small hint of flirtation, it could prove fatal in their line of work.
The details were being engrained into his mentality, pushing away any straggling thoughts of a possible peep show of a naked Sonny Carisi; groaning as he set the bottle now to his forehead to cool it as he closed his eyes to mutter his alter ego's life story to himself.
Rafael's cover story being he just moved to the big city after working for his firm's branch out of Boston, Massachusetts and promoted to Deputy Director of Litigation for the New York branch. An office set-up for the man in the Marks, Brighton and Kelly law office for emphasis should they need a cover of their occupation: full with secretary – an undercover cop – and Sean Brighton being the go-to man for any information. When Sonny had reached out to him with the promise of free publicity from the media for their cooperation to stop this sting with Chief Dodds' seal of approval from the Mayor himself; he could not refuse. That and the fact Sean was dating on of his sisters made the deal even more difficult to not agree to. His only condition that security is beefed up on the tab of the NYPD so undercover cops were requested to be put in place for the operation to be a success.
John Munch was a lot of things if not connected when he wanted to be: his fellow conspiracy theorists, mingling in the Jewish community when he needed the perks, and apparently appealing to the locals in his own mannerisms if he knew how to work even Chief Dodds' and the Mayor. Fin definitely had his hands full with that one.
"Are ya not feeling well Rafael?" That voice was extremely close, eyelids peeled open to see that the tall frame he had been trying miserably to dispel from the forefront of his mind standing there. Sonny stood about a foot away from his shorter body still propped against the counter, his hand lifted for something behind him?
"What?"
Rafael set down the water bottle onto the counter as he realized he was mildly pinned: should he move forward, his torso would come flush in contact with Sonny's and if he stayed still, the other could close the distance himself. He took a second to glance behind him at the hand's line of destination only to return to the front appearing confused.
The large, warm palm settled instead onto his forehead suddenly; a shock of heat traveled through the elder's body from the gentle motion and he froze from head to toes.
"What are you doing?"
"Feelin' you for a fever."
"I do NOT have a fever, I'm not a kid," He responded but had not yet moved to shove the kind hand away. It did feel rather heavenly.
Snickering, his palm shifted to cup the side of the other's face to feel difference of heat distribution, "Stress can happen to anyone, Barba. I'm here to make sure you don't drop over something as silly as a cold."
The attorney could only scoff, recomposing himself as he grabbed the wrist to pull it from his forehead and set it aside. His arms crossing over his torso as the hand decided to settle against the counter instead.
"Hmm, you don't feel warm but maybe we should go stock up on medicine while we're out."
"….Out?" Barba echoed, feeling like an idiot for repeating like a broken parrot instead of pushing the younger man away from his personal space bubble.
He was just mentally willing him away as his expression kept its composure, go face! It didn't fail him like the rest of his body did.
"Well we don't have anything like toiletry stuff – I checked the bathroom, Munch probably figured we could at least get the basics ourselves. And from watching you check out the fridge, there ain't nothing to cook with so we gotta go out together since I can't leave you here," Sonny responded as if that was the most reasonable thing ever as he pulled back to go and head for his wallet, the extra set of keys to the apartment then waved to the ceiling lightly.
"Okay, you are officially freaking me out," Rafael pushed himself from the counter to follow dutifully.
Rolling his eyes, he pointed up to the corner of the kitchen then over to the apartment's mantle place, and finally towards the bedrooms, "There's cameras set-up. Tech set us up so that video of this place is streaming to Fin's, Dodd's and my phones." He pulled out the cellphone from his pocket to offer the view to his roommate.
"So all three of you can see that? Why doesn't mine have it?"
"If you lose the phone for some reason, we don't have to worry about you being made. Now come on, the sooner we get food, the sooner we can eat!" Sonny trailed to hold open the door, giving a nod of his head to the Latino who rolled his eyes then walking out himself.
It took him a minute to realize that any of the other two men could see the way he and Carisi behaved a moment ago, making him smack his forehead earning him a look from the receptionist from earlier as they walk to get a taxi.
"Fin can we re-think the bet?"
"No take-backs, babe. You know the rules," Odafin responded as he rubbed the towel against his neck and head lightly; the thinning of his hair a perk of old age.
The clock on the nightstand reading 9:08 PM: having taken a shower after they had gone home after a quick run to the theater for a
John was situated on their bed, clad in a pair of sweatpants and loose Beatles T-Shirt with his tablet and Fin's cellphone settled on the comforter, turned upside down and the elder gazing to the tablet's bright screen with a casual expression.
The one quality that John failed to possess was innocence. It amused the black man to no end the other's attempts at it so he tended to play along.
Of course the other had probably been scoping out the video on his phone, not having told him about it himself; so they had full advantage to see the progress of the youngest detective and charismatic assistant district attorney.
"What brought that on? If you forfeit, I win by default you know," He settled on his side of the bed, the left side: John apparently had an issue sleeping on the left that was closest to the window. Odafin had asked once, only to receive an earful about being prey to government spies even THROUGH curtains, how their glass would fail to stop a bullet, etc.
Of course the man had only rolled his eyes, after some vocal protest of the elder from his reaction and only agreed to the left side to keep him quiet.
The prospect of losing on a technicality, John looked up and placed his reading glasses aside to slide on his regular lenses with a frown, "Excuse me, I just said RE-THINK, do you still have some water in your ears?"
"If only my luck were that fantastic…."
"Want to come a little closer and repeat that?" John commented to the other man, seeing the amused expression and crooked a finger to the man with a smirk.
Odafin tossed the towel off to the bin where their dirty laundry was waiting to be washed, usually something John was meticulous about that he teased him the first time, only to get kicked to the couch for the week without any chance of intimacy. He shifted to his side, leaned closer to John and kissed the side of his jaw he could reach before his nose was pinched.
"Say that again go on."
"I love you?" His voice nasally with his nose being held hostage by the Jewish male who merely stared back blankly, he licked the side of the other's hand that he could reach, making John promptly release with a gasp, "Fine, what do you want to reconsider?"
"Can you be anymore gross? Don't you know how much bacteria is in your mouth, specifically your tongue?"
"I don't hear ANY complaints from you when my 'gross tongue' is doing sinful things to you, so shut up."
Fin shifted his body to be seated against the headboard, an arm moving to wrap itself around the elder to settle him next to him comfortably. His other hand reaching for his cellphone to input the password, a combination of his son and John's birthdays, and open the running surveillance video.
"That's different, don't be an ass."
"Nah, you're just my favorite one."
"Ugh, how'd I get saddled with such sass?"
Technology had its uses after all; they both remember the long days of physical stake-outs in old Crown Victorias whose heat would conk out at 3 in the morning or whose AC failed to keep them cool in the summer time.
"You were saying? Back to the point John, back to the point," His eyes on the video, not bothering to look at the miffed expression he knew the other was throwing to him.
"Let's make it more interesting…since we're betting a hundred after all. Do you think Carisi or Barba will crack first? We can include one wish to that – the winner has to give one wish to the loser."
"Fine but crack as in? Elaborate."
"Obviously to want to shack up fool isn't that the point? There's so much sexual tension there it reminds me of our youth."
Rolling his eyes, Fin turned to review the day's video to see the encounter of the pair of men in the kitchen prior to leaving for their groceries, "Hmmm….I know them both, I'm inclined to say Carisi. He's kind of a go-getter."
"But Barba would be the underdog then? Just because he's cold doesn't mean he doesn't have needs."
"Are you talking about his or yours now?"
John stabbed the other with his elbow, making the African-American groan from the sensation since they were bony as fuck and lethal to the ribs.
"You know exactly what the hell I'm talking about, stop playing stupid."
His fingers that had been teasing along the edge of the t-shirt the elder wore now went to pinching it. As they had been speaking, Fin managed to maneuver his whole hand beneath the fabric to touch the soft, pale skin that was familiar to him and turn into punishment from the painful jab.
"Christ John! That elbow is a fucking weapon all on its own!"
"And so are those cold fingers so we're even," His attention returning to the device after they had a moment of wrestling to get back into a comfortable seated position on their large bed; John looking at him victoriously.
John's finger moved to tap the screen on the other's phone, moving the camera to the bedrooms then back to the living room where both Carisi and Barba were currently situated – one in the armchair the other longer male seated on the couch. They had gone out, presumably to get toiletries (a gift for Carisi to go and have a shopping date with their favorite ADA) then returned to eat some Chinese food and have casual conversation before popping on the zombie movie.
"I'm still betting on Carisi, he just doesn't know the meaning of no."
"Reminds me of a big lug sitting next to me…"
"Babe, no in our sex always means yes."
"Are you a SVU Detective or an animal?"
Fin laughed as he nipped against the other's ear as the head leaned closer to watch the video, humming lightly, "A little of both."
Of course the video's audio was automatically muted unless they prompt a reason to listen in when Barba hopefully manages to host events in the loft.
Fin's fingers moving to zoom in the camera to see that only the younger man was watching the movie avidly. Barba appeared to have slumped over in his armchair, awkwardly curled up and sagging in it. He must have been exhausted to being dragged about by the suspenders to and from the station.
"You must have been like a bat out of hell trying to talk him into all of this; poor guy can barely keep up with your roll."
"Not my fault youth today has such odd priorities; you'd think I showed him a good time for the trouble."
"I don't want to know seeing as your methods of madness are questionable."
"I think Barba might give in with some different sort of coaxing."
"Hey, no cheating or you're disqualified," Fin mused as he watched the younger man turn his attention from the movie over to the dozing Latino situated across from him.
"Wait…so you're not bothered by what sort of coaxing I was referring to?"
"John, I just spent half of my day prying you off of Barba to wanting one of Carisi to go. I was half waiting for you to ask Dodds out on a date," He was joking for the most part, but his jealousy was not something to toy with too terribly. His temper was notorious and ended them in close calls in breaking up before. Though with age, they had mellowed out and accepted one another's faults.
A wrinkle of his nose, John reached for the phone to click and turn off the streaming video right as Carisi appeared to walk towards Barba to presumably pick him up and carry him over to the bedroom; leaving it discarded and to the side.
Fin's eyes turned almost lazily as the body warmth pulled away from where his hand had continued caressing idly till his lap was suddenly full of a lithe, male who had a pout on his lips that made him laugh inwardly.
His face stoic to not reflect any sort of emotion to his elder lover whose hands went to either side of his own head on against the headboard.
"Yes dear?"
"You're supposed to get mad and fight for my honor you idiot."
"Why? We both know that you're mine and mine alone, those punks got nothing on me," A smirk as one hand snaked itself around the lean waist, fingers nestling underneath the shirt to the base of that spine to caress and pull the other closer to his own torso. His brown eyes looking into mischievous blue ones as his other hand reached for the light on the night table.
"That's for damn sure," John laughed at the other's confidence as the light was turned off to leave them in the dark to tangle in the sheets and know that despite their age, they still had a lot of energy left.
To be continued….